As the author of, DESTINED TO MEET, I always like to see what people think of my books, good or bad.

In the interest of balance for those readers who may still have an open mind, may I suggest you check out the more favorable reviews of DESTINED TO MEET from Romantic Times, The Romance Readers Connection, Genre Go Round Reviews, Night Owl Reviews, and Harriet Klausner.

Moreover, just this week, DESTINED TO MEET placed #5 on the Harlequin Top Ten Books About Love:

Top 10 Books About Love
1. Falling for the M.D. by Marie Ferrarella
2. Nobody Does It Better by Jennifer LaBrecque
3. Moonlight and Roses by Jackie Braun
4. Loving Evangeline by Linda Howard
5. Destined to Meet by Devon Vaughn Archer
6. On the Wings of Love by Elizabeth Lane
7. Moonstruck by Susan Grant
8. A Perfect Stranger by Terry McLaughlin
9. The Man Next Door by Gina Wilkins
10. The Padova Pearls by Lee Wilkinson

This should say something about the quality of the read.

Have a nice day.

Devon Vaughn Archer

Sorry I got off subject, I too read Jennifer Wilde’s book and knew it was wrote by a male and a few others throughout the years. None of them that are writing true straight romance has made an impact enough on me to even remember them really.

The only example I can give from personal experience is reading Leigh Greenwood and while I enjoyed the books, I always felt something was missing or not quite right, but I could never really articulate what it was. I'm not sure if finding out after the fact that Leigh is male shows negative bias, or whether my example proves the opposite. :)

Many years ago I enjoyed Jennifer Wilde’s Once More, Miranda. I was astonished to find out later that Wilde was really the male author Tom Huff. My feeling at the time was that he did an excellent job writing in the female POV, but as I have not reread the book in several years I can’t be sure I would feel the same way now. I remember trying others of his books. I liked The Slipper but was unable to get into the Marietta trilogy.

I think one of the reasons I love the Curtis books is that because they are a team, a married couple at that, you get a blending of the male and female voices. I know that the Tori Carrington books, which I haven't read, are written by a couple, and, so, I think, are the Ilona Andrews books. Are there others?

Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer, of course.

I think if I had accidentally come across that in a book, I would’ve died laughing.

Also, balloning eyes != sexy. If I was with someone whose eyes started “balloning” I would rush them to the emergency room.

I’m curious – this book seems pretty crappy. I know there are crappy books by female authors, too, but is a less-than-stellar romance book by a man more likely to get published, because it’s by a man? I guess I’m wondering if publishers think the novelty of a male author will compensate for any shortcomings that are present.

Is it possible to suck on both lips at once?

I am here to report that yes, it unfortunately is possible. Ex-boyfriend. ‘Nuff said.

I’m glad I wasn’t drinking my coffee when I saw this, as I would’ve spit it out. That quote also made me think of some…shall we say…unfortunate kissers from high school (probably not the age group the author is going for).

I am here to report that yes, it unfortunately is possible. Ex-boyfriend. ‘Nuff said.

Oh, so you had one of those boyfriends who had this amazing knack for getting his whole mouth over yours and doing this sort of kiss/suck thing while still managing to drool copiously on you, too?

Is it possible to suck on both lips at once?

I am here to report that yes, it unfortunately is possible. Ex-boyfriend. ‘Nuff said.

Are there others?

Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees write together. Perhaps more chick-lit than romance, though the one I read had a romantic HEA.
Long time since I read it, and I only read the one – which may not be typical of their writing style – but I seem to remember he wrote the male pov, and she wrote the female pov. I could be mistaken about that.

Janet/Robin: Why suppress it? Snark away. I had some less than charitable thoughts myself on the subject-like, male wish fulfillment, anyone?

Yeah, I was going to say that it must be the male fantasy.

Of course it’s not simply fantasy, is it, when you look at the infidelity and divorce statistics.

I've seen people (usually severe critics of the genre and more often than not women) mention how un-real men in romance novels are. How their behavior and language is inauthentic. One memorable critic said Asaro's heroes are all just women with dicks.

Well, I find a lot of the female characters pretty unrealistic, too, so I don’t think it’s just a gender thing. Ultimately, think a talented writer can mimic any voice, male or female. But I do think that Romance caters a bit to what is *perceived* to be a female fantasy, which probably shapes the portrayal of some male characters. Then again, SF/F have types, too, as do mysteries, crime novels, etc.

Robin, I can’t think of any other teams than the ones you have listed, although I’m sure there must be more. I was going to say Laura London, but that’s the Curtises.

I’ve seen people (usually severe critics of the genre and more often than not women) mention how un-real men in romance novels are. How their behavior and language is inauthentic. One memorable critic said Asaro’s heroes are all just women with dicks.

After thinking about it, I do feel that romance novel males probably talk more (about their feelings and just in general) than their real life brethren. Then I remembered the review of the Jes Battis’ UF review and the technical infodumping complaint. So, I guess we could hypothesize that women focus on dialogue and men on techno babble.

Slightly tangential, when my parents were here they ran out of reading material and I dug up some of my German books (translated romance was all I had to offer :). My dad read Sandra Brown’s Mirror Image and seems to have enjoyed it. I didn’t question him in detail about it, so I don’t know how authentic he found the males in this book and even if I did, I’m not sure he’d have much to say, a la Ned as seen in the video review post here on DA (‘but what did you THINK’?).

Men tend to write love stories that conclude with the woman lost or dead, and the man free to love or at least have sex again.

I am working so hard to suppress a snarky comment here, lol.

The only example I can give from personal experience is reading Leigh Greenwood and while I enjoyed the books, I always felt something was missing or not quite right, but I could never really articulate what it was. I'm not sure if finding out after the fact that Leigh is male shows negative bias, or whether my example proves the opposite. :)

To me this brings up the whole issue of whether/how the male POV in Romance is written by women for the most part. Is Romance, in other words, a particularly female genre, and what does that mean if it is? Is it that women don’t want to read the *real* male POV, or are some of the men writing in the genre trying to mimic the way the female writers work the male POV, thus not giving us an authentic POV themselves? I tend not to be of the belief that a woman cannot write a man’s POV and vice versa, but Romance does seem to be intrinsically related to the expectations of women.

I think one of the reasons I love the Curtis books is that because they are a team, a married couple at that, you get a blending of the male and female voices. I know that the Tori Carrington books, which I haven’t read, are written by a couple, and, so, I think, are the Ilona Andrews books. Are there others?

I’ve only read a few books that were written openly by male authors but they all were bittersweet to pretty damn depressing (Sparks, Evan Maxwell).

I’d think that has more to do with male writer bias against HEA and with males not wanting to be known for having written something ‘sappy’ with a happy ending.

In that way, I do have a bias against male writers, but more from the fact that I learned the hard way that they don’t seem to write the kind of stories I want to read even if the label ‘romance’ is affixed to the book.

I didn't know this was a guy who wrote this novel. I guess that explains a lot.

I admire the fact that he hasn’t tried to hide it, exactly, because I do think that female readers can have a bias against men trying to write genre Romance. But damn if I can rid myself totally of that bias myself when I read those quotes Jane posted. At the very least, the one night stand makes a little more sense to me, lol, because it sure doesn’t seem to fit with the way the book is described here.

Where’s Tom Curtis when we need him? If I were a male author aspiring to write Romance, I’d be reading the Curtises way before the likes of Nicholas Sparks.

And since we know Oprah would never consider anything with a happy ending it’s clear a real romance will never get pimped on her show. Too bad!